Tag: Facebook

Posted on

Facebook Says Email is Dying – It’s True!

Just ask any 20 something young adult or try to correspond with them and you’ll see that it is true email is dying and in fact so are phone calls with this demographic group. For any parent of a young adult in college or one just getting out on their own, we know that we reach our kids through text messages to their mobile phones and send messages to their Facebook profiles. Send an email message and you’ll probably never even receive a response.

Sheryl Sandberg the COO of Facebook recently spoke on this topic. You can check out the video and more information on her chat on this topic through Web Pro News. Although Web Pro News, in this article, clearly does not agree that email is dying, as I read the article, I rapidly have grasped that the writer has missed the meaning of Ms. Sandberg’s comments.

I do agree that in a few years email as we know it today will have morphed into something different. I feel that social networking sites have brought about such big changes in how we interact online that in the not too distant future their advent may be considered as big as the development of the Internet.

Yes for now, you do need an email to set up social network accounts and most business communication is by email, but if we closely watch our young people and how they use technology to communicate, we see that we are in for some very big changes in the not too distant future with most of the big changes being tied to popular social networking platforms like Facebook.

Posted on

What Do You Really Need When It Comes to Facebook Interaction?

Okay so you have a Facebook Fan page, now what kind of interaction do you really need in order to grow your visibility? From personal experience, I have found that fans will typically not jump into discussion or forum-like interactions. They will however share your video links from YouTube and even comment on interesting status updates.

It is important when you set up your own Facebook Fan Page to try different things to see what your own fans like and don’t like. I have found for myself that Fans won’t take the time to join in heavy discussions on industry specific topics. My fans like YouTube videos and small informational snippets.

When you set up your own Facebook Fan Page, I recommend that you try out different approaches for about 30 days to see what your fans like. I even recommend asking them. Running contests and doing polls are just a few ways you can elicit a response from your own fans.

Facebook makes it easy for you to know what your fans like by sending you a weekly activity update so you can identify how many times fans have interacted with your page and how many new fans you have gotten.

I feel that it is important for a business to have a Facebook Fan page with the strong acceptance and use of Facebook. Facebook is a mainstream application and another great and fun way to share information with customers, prospects, and business colleagues.

Posted on

Is Facebook Safe for Kids?

As a parent myself and one that works on the Web, my kids are very attuned to being online. That being said, I do not give my triplet 13 year olds “Carte Blanche” when it comes to choosing chat rooms or applications that their friends are using. In fact I do not even permit chat room use.

For me, I also do not allow at this time any instant messaging applications. I find them a distraction for my kids with the constant exchange with others while they should be doing homework or class research. I do however allow my kids to have Facebook pages, but I have set them up for them.

As a parent it is very important that if you allow your child to be on Facebook, that you carefully review their security settings yourseld. I found one of my kids had the city revealed in her profile and another allowed too much personal information to be shared to people other than friends.

I do monitor my own kids Facebook pages. I have friended each of them and their status updates appear on my wall. I do intervene both on Facebook publicly when needed to make sure my own kids AND their friends know that I am watching. I do periodically review that their privacy settings have not changed and I do periodically review their full profile online.

Kids want to be on Facebook, but it is important that you as the parent make sure that the Facebook environment is safe for them first by reviewing all the profile privacy settings.

Posted on

The New Must Haves for Every Business Owner

It used to be that if a business did not advertise in the Yellow Pages, you were out of the game.,Now there are new “must haves” for business owners to consider to be a part of our new “connected” global business marketplace. These new “must haves” are a blog, a Facebook presence, and a Twitter account.

If you look at each of the three items I mentioned, they have one thing in common, they allow a connection with users who want information fast and to connect with and interact with the real you versus reading  a brochure-like website. It is important to note that I am assuming that you have a website already by this point. If you don’t have even that, then instant remediation is needed quickly.

The Web has changed our world and how we do business drastically, but social networking is now changing how we interact on the Web with each other. So let’s talk about these three important components briefly and why you should have each.

Blogs
There are so many SEO benefits that are derived from blogging that to not now have an on domain blog puts you at a competitive disadvantage. As a blog is written in a more conversational style and allows for comments it is a wonderful way to start interacting with prospects and get tangible organic search benefits at the same time.

Facebook Presence
Facebook has gotten so big that you just cannot be using it at this point in time. It is like how a  website was considered a few years ago. If you didn’t have one you weren’t in the game. This is the same now with Facebook. Many businesses will start out with a personal profile, as I did myself, and then move to expand interaction through a Facebook Fan Page. Whichever direction you take it’s important to get in the game at this point. Recently, Facebook even eclipsed Google in user activity. Facebook  is a huge sleeping giant that can be harnessed to drive traffic, interact with customers, find prospects, and share information about yourself and your business. When Facebook finally figures out how to monetize itself properly the returns will be huge.

I have gotten quite a bit of business from Facebook over this last year and that was just from my personal profile. I have sold and closed a several thousand dollar custom website project, and in the last two weeks alone, I have gotten a new ghost blogging client and a press release client. So, if you take the attitude that Facebook has too much “fluff” and is just full of games, think again. Serious business is being done through Facebook interaction.

Twitter
Twitter has grown tremendously in popularity with 300,000 new users each month and over 10 million using Twitter already. This application has potential written all over it. Twitter is not about spamming others with what you sell, but about interaction, answering questions, providing information, and sharing information. It is not as rich as an interactive environment as Facebook, but its viral marketing potential is stronger than that of Facebook.

Big business has flocked to Twitter. Say anything in Twitter about Kohls, and a real person will direct message you. Say you have a problem on Twitter about Network Solutions, and a real person will chat you up to make sure that all is well. Using mentions and search queries you can monitor what is being said about your business on Twitter and interact with others with similar interests. Twitter is growing so fast that it makes sense to get in “before the curve” and not “after the curve”.

I am always watching for the next big thing to check it out for our own business and our clients early. I’ll let you know a secret, the next big thing I’m watching is being tested by Google Labs in India. It is SMS Channels. This new application allows you to set up a channel of content and allow subscribers to receive your information directly to their mobile phone. That should be a biggy. I’ll let you know when it comes to the US.